WHo is Mr. Mike? – Career started at Origin in the early-90′s working on the Ultima series, until Ultima Online. Then founded his own studio where he made Magnadoodle and some games for Microsoft. Then Ion Strom and then Breakaway Games doing Serious Games. Wrote “Game Coding Complete” which is in its 3rd edition. Now working at Red Fly Studios where he did Mushroom Men.
Caveats -
- I don’t have the answers, just some wacky ideas
- I’m not trying to dreail anyone’s deal (especially Red Fly’s)
About Mushroom Men – 8 Reasons it should never have been signed or shipped
- Red Fly had no developers – they had to hire everyone (Previously they had just been an art outsourcing studio)
- They had no tech of their own
- They never developed on the Wii before
- It was an original IP for a Xmas 08 release
- It was a multiplatform, worldwide game from a developer that had never made a game before\
- The management team had never worked together.
- They signed a second project during mid-development, which is usually the death-knell for a small studio
- The second project was ALSO cross-platform
Most developers are too risk-averse to sign this kind of project. Thanks and kudos to Gamecock for making it happen.
Why did this game succeed where others have failed? – The game had a good sould. The teck risk was low. But, most importantly, Gamecock was extraordinarily hands-off. Thanks to the other things, this worked out.
So, how can we increase the chances of this happening again?
Mike asked a lot of people for input on this subject and got lots of feedback, but no one was comfortable being identified publicly.
Question: Are you happy with the way we do business?
Responses: Publishers, lawyers, and agents are generally happy, but developers are generally unhappy. This is a problem. I’m not talking about the huge, successful developers. I’m talking about aspiring developers, who are the source of fantastic new ideas. These are companies like Harmonix, 5 years ago, who have the ideas that eventually turn into billion-dollar franchises. However, many of them just do a project and then go out of business (Mr. Mike has already had 2 that fit that descriptions).
There are basically 2 major areas where this unhappiness comes from:
- Contract Terms
- Milestone Madness
Also, many small developers can’t say “no” to requests from the publisher, even if it hurts the game. It is inevitable that publishers will make these kinds of requests. The issue is how the conversation on the subject is had and how the decisions are reached.
As people get screwed over they add language to their contracts to protect themselves, such as “developer warrants that blah blah blah blah is true throughout the Universe.” (Someone points out that this is in every Disney contract and has its roots in the movie industry). This is because attorneys are paid to protect their clients’ interests, not to create “fair agreements.” That is up to the people negotiating the deals. It is up to “you” (the non-lawyers) to decide to take the risks and which risks to take, but remember that risk isn’t inherently bad and it a necessity.
Another issue is that publisher contracts tend to start out extremely biased in favor of the publisher. The developer then must fight tooth and nail to claw their way back to something fair. “I challenge everyone to stop playing these games. The only ones that win are our hourly paid attorneys. Wouldn’t it be nice to create a standard contract?” Think about the real estate industry. Home purchase contracts are standardized. You just fill-in the blanks. This speeds-up business and saves money. (Someone points out that UK company Tiga have created an industry-standard contract, but that it’s not used much).
(Mike shows a fairly standard-looking milestone schedule). “These are negotiated.” Then, what happens is that occassionally the publisher rejects a milestone. This puts the “aspiring developer” in a very awkward position because they are often immediately “up against a wall.” They stop thinking about the problems with the milestone and how to solve them and then they start thinking about how to make payroll because if they can’t make payroll the employees will quit and then everyone loses. This is a fundamental problem and Mr. Mike proposes a small tweak to the contracts to address these issues.
Mike proposes that, in addition to a milestone schedule, a separate payment schedule be created that is not directly related to the milestone schedule. This is not a big difference, but it will create a “fundamental difference in the relationship.” This means that finance and legal are no separate from product development. This dramatically reduces developer stress and means that when money issues arise they do not have to be resolved by Producers, but by business people.
What is the motivation for publishers to do this? Developers need to provide something to make it worth the publisher’s while. Developers need to provide estimates that are not padded.
Anecdote: Mr Mike: “Why are internal games usually better than 3rd party games?” Mr Mike’s publisher friend: “Because there is 100% transparency of the production process.”
I believe that this wil have a drastic impact on the quality and predictability of the games that we are creating. i challenge everyone to think hard about how to make this happen.
